World Youth Festival Opens in Havana

By Gloria La Riva, Havana. From Workers World, 7 August, 1997

Some 10,000 delegates from over 114 countries showed a
powerful spirit of solidarity with Cuba as they marched down
the main downtown street to a rally on the historic steps of
the University of Havana July 28. There, President Fidel
Castro welcomed them to revolutionary Cuba.

The occasion was the official opening of the 14th World
Festival of Youth and Students.

Tens of thousands of Cubans, young and old, lined the
streets cheering each delegation--while each international
delegation waved flags and chanted support for Cuba. There
were especially loud cheers for north Korea, Yemen, Vietnam
and Angola.

From the 520 youths of the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea to the 628 Mexicans, 398 Angolans, 360 Puerto Ricans
and 771 U.S. delegates, they had all come to pay tribute to
Cuba's revolutionary steadfastness in the face of a
tightening U.S. blockade. And they are here to join forces
against imperialism, and for peace and friendship.

The U.S. group is not only the biggest at the festival. It
is also the biggest U.S. group ever to travel to socialist
Cuba for any event.

Che Guevara's image is everywhere--on banners, posters, T-
shirts, in the streets, on videos. His revolutionary life is
a constant theme of discussion among the young people here.

Tahnee Stair, a 21-year-old activist in Workers World
Party, said: "For me, Che is an inspiration and a lesson
that youth can change the world. It does make a difference
to have someone who was such a model of sacrifice and
struggle, especially as we youth are fighting capitalism and
all its effects worldwide."

How to conduct the struggle against imperialism is being
debated each day at the Palace of Conventions. Among the
many workshop topics are democracy and participation,
discrimination and racism, the environment, young workers,
and culture.

There are also tours to cultural sites, health centers and
work places.

NAT'L MOBILIZATION TO GREET YOUTHS

As of July 30, festival participants are still arriving.
There are now 125 countries represented and 10,007 people
registered.

Each one is staying in a Cuban household. More than 53,000
Cuban families offered their homes to host delegates. A
national fund drive among the population helped defray
costs.

On June 27 before the official activities began, families
came to meet their youth delegates on the lawn of the
Ministry of Transport, carrying placards with their names.
Jacobo Small, a 21-year-old from Oakland, Calif., shouted
out, "Mom!" and embraced his family.

Although many delegates--be they Vietnamese, Chinese or
German--may not know Spanish, it seems everyone is using a
universal language of solidarity.

The level of organization and coordination among the Cuban
organizations and populace is impressive. The Cuban
Organizing Committee has 24-hour command posts set up in
each neighborhood to coordinate logistics and assist
delegates. On each block where delegates are staying, young
people are assigned to address any problems that arise.

Dozens of schoolbuses, freed from school-year use, are
carrying people through the city.

In a keynote speech during the democracy commission, Cuban
National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon denounced the
most recent hostilities by the U.S. government as expressed
by Undersecretary of State for Latin American Affairs David
Davidow. Alarcon quoted Davidow as saying, "Like the bones
of Che Guevara, Cuba is a vestige of the wrong kind of
politics."

Alarcon responded: "For Cuban women and men today, there
is no doubt in our minds that Che is alive. We feel him
alive in our work, in the work he helped to build, as very
few so lovingly did, in how he taught us to struggle
constantly to refine and perfect ... .

"We don't have the slightest doubt that he is alive in our
will to resist, in our pained struggle to preserve our
independence, to save our Revolution, to defend our gains.
He is ever-present in our conviction that socialism has to
be based first and foremost on conscience, on social
awareness, in the ability of women and men to create a
better way of life."

While aiding Bolivian liberation efforts 30 years ago,
Guevara was assassinated by the CIA. His remains, recently
unearthed from a secret mass grave in Bolivia, were returned
to Cuba just two weeks ago.